Brightlingsea One Design

ROWHEDGE REGATTA 2017

Saturday 10^th June, High water 1345

Brightlingsea One Designs

90^th anniversary race

This year there will be the usual upriver race for the Marlow Trophy, using the same courses as last year. There will also be a downriver race, for the Ian Brown Trophy.

Upriver Race

Startline:       Batemans Tower.

Start:             1115 hrs. A sequence of a 10-minute gun and a 5-minute gun will be sounded.

Courses:      Signboards on Batemans Tower will indicate which course to use.

1. Creek Mouth port, Big Buoy stbd, No.8 stbd, Mersea Wreck stbd to finish line.
2. 13 stbd, Mersea Wreck stbd to finish line.
3. 12 stbd to finish line.

Finish Line:   Between pole with chequered flag on quayside outside ‘Ye Olde Albion’ PH, Pearsons Quay, and white pole with black bands on Wivenhoe shore.

Once you have finished the race please come ashore for beer, food and fun! Beer vouchers for skippers/crew (to be used Regatta day only) will be available near the broadcast caravan situated outside Ye Olde Albion.

Mooring – we are reserving mooring for the BODs and WODS in the Ferry Hard (the bay between the two quays). You will be able to raft up to a grey plastic pontoon from which you can get ashore. This new position will make it easier for you to hear the PA announcing the downriver race, and easier to get to the line.

Downriver Race

Start Line – The Rowhedge Line (op. the Albion Pub)

Start time –  1400 hrs

Course –       From Rowhedge to BSC finish line.  Navigation marks DO NOT have to be observed.

Any queries please contact Nick Baker, Rowhedge Regatta Association

01206 728693 mob 07821 797284 e-mail NickVBaker@aol.com

Entering

We are pleased to say that owing to the generosity of our sponsors, there are no fees required this year.  But it is important that we have the following info –

• Your name, phone no. and email (if available)
• Boat name and sail number.
• Hull colour and spinnaker colour
• Confirm that you have current 3^rd party
• Any interesting information about the boat

Please send this information by email, or phone the entries secretary, Julian Brett, jbrett@ukgo.com , phone –  07780 060605

Any enquiries please phone 01206 728693, or email NickVBaker@aol.com

Late entries

This year you can enter on the day by reporting into the entries secretary, Julian, before the start. Please have the details listed above ready, and call well before the 10 minute gun.

THE DEDICATED NUMBER FOR LATE ENTRIES –  07780 060605

For late entries please DO NOT call the OOD number or try to contact us on VHF Channel M1

Prize giving

There are Trophies for both races and prizes for places.  Prize giving will take place in the evening at 1930 on the green outside the Olde Shippe, opposite the Ferry Hard. There are bands, fireworks and other entertainment in the evening to make your visit worthwhile, even if you haven’t won anything.

Good Sailing!

Nick Baker OOD

A blustery start with a nasty wind over tide sea following the start and the wind rising during the race.  At the start gusts to 16knots from an average 12knots but a reported from the mouth of the river gusts of 35knots towards the end of the race.

Not a perfect start line as a bight on the anchor line stopped the Committee Boat dropping back a further 20-30 feet and re-anchorage not a good choice in the sea conditions.

Two were over the line – 56 and 50 – but returned and rejoined the fleet.

50 retired due to mainsail gear failure and were escorted to shore.

31 retired due to a spinnaker recovery difficulty.

56 retired after a spectacular late capsize but impressive laser like recovery.  However lost radio bag, a casualty not retrieved by the Committee Boat heading to Station for finish (not practical to run a further short lap) and Valiant struggling in the conditions.

On the water finish order was 16, 53 and 75 but 16 retired post the race as passed finish line on the wrong side of marker buoy.

Committee boat welcomes Martin as crew who had a baptism of water but seemed to enjoy it.  Safety Boats struggled in probably the worst conditions ever (wind over tide seas) and waves breaking over both boats.

For an early season race taxing on all participants but good competitive sailing.

To note 53’s remarkable recovery as lost their way during the race but recovered well.

To conclude 53 followed by 75 as finishers

Once again Radios or Radios with flat  batteries were a problem.  Please would everyone make sure they have their Radio with them, on the correct channel and with the battery charged. This is not only about ease of communication but on windy days like this one it could just save your life.

Our thanks to Pam Readings for this week’s racing report and to the entire Race Committee for coping so well in such very difficult conditions.

With apologies for the delay here are the results for last weekend’s Eric Dent Cup.

Please don’t forget that BOD Class Rules require all crews to wear buoyancy aids whilst racing.  This is an essential safety rule and the Race Officer has the right to immediately disqualify any competitor identified as not wearing a buoyancy aid.  Thanks all.

This Sunday 21 May the CYC BOD season will get underway with the Eric Dent Cup which starts from the Bateman’s Tower line at 14.15.  Once again Nick and Pam Readings, Graham Chasney and the CYC team will be running our racing and the line will be set using the Committee Boat.

There have been no changes to the CYC Course card which remains as published in 2016.

Sadly Jumbo Too isn’t quite ready to hit the race course yet, but that means good post racing news for us as Jumbo Too crew and CYC Commodore Oonie Werngren has volunteered to organise yummy tea and cakes a CYC after racing.

Two other boats that aren’t able to  join us this weekend are Gelasma and Sarah Louise who are setting off for France to take part in the biennial La Semain du Golfe du Morbihan – one of the most spectacular traditional and historic boat events in Europe.

But we should still have a good turnout with around 8 boats expected on the line so we’ll hope to see you out there and back in the club for those delicious cakes!

Hooray.  The BOD sailing season is finally upon us and the omnipresent Mr Gritton and his Never Say Never crew will have some BOD competition at last!

Things get underway with a special Champagne Thursday Night Pursuit Race this Thursday 4 May starting from BSC from 19.00.  Please BSC to pick up this year’s pursuit start times from the BSC Hut before you go afloat as there have been some handicap changes.  The main Thursday Night Series will start on 11 May.

On Sunday 7 May we have a double bill with the Rotary Cup starting from the BSC line at 11.10 (BSC is running May Mugs class racing and we will be the final start as usual).  It will be a special pursuit style race of approx 90 minutes and special sailing instructions for this will be emailed to the owners shortly.  The race will be followed by an informal BOD Fleet lunch in the BSC Upstairs Lounge. Book in right away for lunch with Fiona on fiona.brown@fionabrown.com.

From the look of the number of boats in the boat park already we can expect a really good turnout in this our 90th anniversary year.

Can’t wait to see you all on the water!

We are very excited to announce that the museum is holding a special exhibition celebrating 90 Years of The Brightlingsea One Design, and that all BOD sailors and friends are invited to a special preview showing this Saturday 22 April from 10am until 12 noon, so if you are free do please drop in and take a sneaky advanced look or call in when it is formally open over the bank holiday weekend.

We have just a few tickets left for the BOD 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner on Saturday 22 April at Wivenhoe House so if you would like to join us please take action and book in straight away (the absolute closing date for bookings is next Thursday 6 April).

It’s going to be a fabulous evening, we have some wonderful memorabilia and guest speakers lined up and the hotel is doing us proud with a superb venue and menu.  It really is going to be something quite special so please do join us and be part of the fun.

For those coming from Brightlingsea we have a charabanc booked to collect everyone from Victoria Place at 6.30pm (exact cost depends on final numbers but it will be sub £10 return per person so cheaper than a taxi) and return you at the end of the evening.  Almost everyone coming from Brightlingsea has booked in for this so it’s definitely going to be a fun ride.

As this is such a special evening we have set a dress code of jackets and ties for the gentlemen and cocktail or dinner dresses for the ladies.

The evening opens with a sparking wine drinks reception in the elegant reception rooms of the old part of the hotel and if the weather is fine we can even spill out into the hotel’s wonderful gardens which will be in full spring bloom by then. From here we will move through into the superbly appointed purpose built banqueting suite for dinner and the remainder of our evening.

To reserve your tickets, book in for the bus and confirm your menu selections please go to our online booking system, which also contains information about how to pay.

Rooms can be booked at the hotel for those who wish to stay overnight and details can be found at www.wivenhoehouse.co.uk

Check out our fabulous BOD 90th Anniversary poster designed by David Bridle of The Press Gang

Here it is folks!  The 2017 Brightlingsea One Design Racing and Social Programme.  We can’t wait to see you all on the water and in the bar!

Click here to download a PDF copy of the 2017 Programme